It in particular applies to garments designed for practicing sports activities such as fitness, during which the limbs of the wearer are subject to repeated flexion and extension movements, which in particular result in the garment moving in relation to the body of the wearer.
In order to fight against cellulite, some manufacturers have developed garments generating physiological effects on the body by application of a compressive force on the skin, in particular encouraging venous return and lymphatic drainage, combined with local mechanical and/or chemical stimulation of the skin tissue.
There exist, for example, compression tights the fabric material of which is equipped with micro-capsules containing active substances that are released on contact with the skin, such as caffeine associated with shea butter to encourage fat burning. Compression tights have also been produced using fibres integrating microbeads containing ceramic powder capable of emitting infrared radiation in order to thermally stimulate cutaneous microcirculation.
However, such tights are made to be very tight-fitting, which is uncomfortable and makes them little suited to practicing a physical activity encouraging circulation and fat loss. Moreover, the effectiveness of garments integrating active substances is limited in time, as said substances are sensitive to the washing of said garments.
A compression garment such as tights or a T-shirt is also known in document EP-1 713 352, the inner surface of which is equipped with discrete, hemispherical, silicone picots intended to apply, when practicing sport, an anti-cellulite action through exerting pressure and massaging on the body areas with which said picots are in contact.
However, this solution is not entirely satisfactory, as the geometry of the picots does not allow for the combined exertion of pressure and pinching of the skin between said picots, which suffice for an effective micro-massaging effect. Furthermore, document EP-1 713 352 provides a space between the picots to guarantee aeration of the body area that they cover, thus limiting the massaging effect from the picots.
The invention aims to perfect the prior art by proposing in particular a garment designed to be able to apply an improved micro-massaging action on localised parts of the body of the wearer, in particular when practicing a physical activity, in order to benefit from an anti-cellulite effect on said body parts.
For this purpose, the invention proposes a garment comprising at least one sleeve intended to cover a part of the body of a wearer, said sleeve having at least one region, the inner surface of which is equipped with a network of picots, said sleeve being designed to be able to exert compressive stress from the picots onto the skin of the body part that is intended to be positioned facing the network, said picots each having a trigonal base and being distributed in the network so as to form alveoli between adjacent picots, said sleeve being designed such that the picots can exert pressure on the skin great enough to form a skin protrusion in at least one alveolus in order to micro-massage said protrusion during relative movements taking place between said network and said body part.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the following description, which is given with reference to the appended figures, in which: